So, what next?
Well, I hear were going to get the full gory details of whatever new role Bryan Colangelo has coming to him sometime this morning – was still no official word on what precisely it was when a long day came to end last ni...
So, what next?
Well, I hear were going to get the full gory details of whatever new role Bryan Colangelo has coming to him sometime this morning – was still no official word on what precisely it was when a long day came to end last night – but that’s about it.
No new president, no new general manager, I’m not hearing about any shuffling of any hands at the moment.
The Flavour of the Month, Masai Ujiri, isn’t going to talk to Tim Leiweke before Wednesday or so people who would know are telling me so we can put that one away to rest for 48 hours or so.
And who knows if it works out anyway, not sure Denver won’t come back with some equally-lucrative offer to keep their top executive.
Masai’s repatriation is not slam dunk at all, at least that’s what I’m hearing in the last 24 hours or so.
But as I’m thinking yesterday – and it was actually a long day of thinking and typing and being like a constant alarm clock (Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!) to some people – whatever happened to the concept of hitting a home run with whatever new guy comes on board?
Some big name that’ll catch everyone’s attention; that idea seems to have drifted away in the weeks since Tim Leiweke first came on board and everyone got in a kerfuffle because he knows Phil Jackson.
Well, here’s one for a home run that makes so much sense it doesn’t have a chance at happening.
If I’m Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, I’d certainly give it my best shot to convince Wayne Embry to become the team’s president, let he and Ed Stefanski run the show with Dwane Casey and see where we go.
You cannot imagine the respect with which Wayne is regarded around the NBA; he is an icon and a legend and has done everything imaginable in the game. Cannot be understated.
I know for a fact he loves Toronto – he once told me that outside of championship seasons in Boston this has been the most enjoyable stop of his long and illustrious career – and in eight years here he knows where all the bodies have buried and has walked many a minefield.
He massaged the Rob Babcock-Sam Mitchell relationship, he’s been a sage to everyone who works at the joint for the past half decade and when this thing was headed entirely off the rails last December, you know who was here to have meetings and private conversations? Wayne.
He knows the game, the people in the game, he knows people and how to get the most of out them, how to make diverse personalities work for a common cause while putting aside any differences of opinion.
He’s a presence.
I don’t know who is going to be hurt the most in this changeover, how it shakes out cannot be even guessed at for certain right now, but if Tim Leiweke has a brain in his head, he will not – cannot – let a valuable resource and a great man like Wayne Embry get away.
And if the board and ownership and whoever take the time to try to convince Embry to take on an even more significant role right now, that will be the best time they can spend.
(Yes, I floated the name – entirely off the top of my head and a thought that came right of nowhere – of Russ Granik on the radio yesterday but that was just silly and should be taken as the rambling of a madman)
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Ray Manzarek?
Yeah, he had some music chops.
RIP
I know more than a few people were stung by the news of his passing yesterday.
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Here’s a Did You Know.
Did you know that if you settle on the deck to start typing about 10:30 in the morning that you have to shift around the table three times before 7:30 p.m. to make sure the sun doesn’t shine in either your eyes or on your screen.
Not that I’d want to do that more than, say, once a year, but at least now we know.
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I’ve got a thing this afternoon that means I can’t drink coffee this morning and you know those people to say they get grumpy when they don’t have their morning coffee?
They’re 1,000,000 per cent right.
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Super Dog digression; and a reason why this little Boston is among the
